Football presenter Adrian Chiles earns £4.6 million in a year

It's not just the players that make the big bucks: football presenter Adrian Chiles pulled in over £4.6 million last year, up £700,000 from the year before, it's been revealed.

Chiles has been the lead presenter of ITV's football coverage, including the FA Cup and Champion's League, for the last four years, and also presents a three-hour show on BBC Radio 5 Live. He channels his earnings through a company called Basic Broadcasting, of which he is the only director.

And, according to the company's latest financial filing, company profits for the year ended 31 January this year were up by 18% on the £3.94 million reported the previous year, at £4.625 million.

The documents also show that Chiles took out a loan of £599,538 from the company last year, of which he'd repaid £118,304 by the end of January.

Article continues below

Of course, Chiles' earnings may look like a lot of money to most people, but they make him decidedly the poor relation in the world of football. Manchester United star Wayne Rooney, for example, makes an unbelievable £300,000 a week.

And he's not even the highest earner in British football - not by a long chalk: agent Jorge Mendes is reported to have made more than £30 million during this season's transfer window.

Nevertheless, Chiles has come a long way since his teenage years, when he earned £2.80 for a paper round and then worked for his father's scaffolding business before going to university. And, he says, he was never particularly money-savvy, telling This Is Money in 2006 that he had his "head in the sand" when it came to planning for retirement.

He was "sort of vaguely hoping that whatever property I've managed to hang on to will somehow fund me and my family," he said, adding: "I do have a pension, but I don't really understand it and have been meaning to sort the flaming thing out every day for the past two years."

Chiles may not make have quite so much to report this time next year. His previous contract with ITV, which covered a range of programming and is believed to have been worth £1.5 million a year, ended in April this year. Since then he's signed another contract with ITV, restricted to footballing programmes, and believed to involve a pay cut of £1 million a year.

Read more on AOL Money:

Highest-paid in English football isn't Rooney

The sports stars who earn more than footballers

The multi-million pound 'Brand Rooney'